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Jane (Brittany Clough) is a young, independent single mother, who just one year ago got sexually assaulted by Emmett (Sean C. Dwyer) while working at a strip club. Finch (Rohain Arora) is a former drug dealer trying to redeem himself through music. Juggling between work, raising her little girl, and her goal of opening a dance studio, Jane meets Finch on a fated night that involves her gun and his car. They soon fall in love, but tension ensues when we learn her attacker also happens to be Finch’s roommate. Soon after, the world they know begins to crumble apart, only to be put back together in unexpected ways.

ARTISTIC VISION

“The only way to get a director’s artistic vision is to take a trip inside their head- we’re sort of complicated that way. So I’ll try my best to describe it to you. Picture a post-modern mash-up of grunge and riot grrl with the pessimism of a 1940s noir film, and the magic of Neverland. Only instead of Humphrey Bogart in a fedora, you get an introverted musician in a black motorcycle jacket.

“At its core ‘Jane & Finch’ is really a love story, not a romance. Our generation has gotten so accustomed to the instant gratification of dating apps and finding that perfect person (who likely is anything but perfect), that we forget the beauty in showing our vulnerable side. Instead, we all want to show the best of ourselves. Jane and Finch never have the chance to do that, because people in their lives only see them how they want to see them. For their choices, their mistakes, their reputation- when really they’re just people. And that’s what makes [real] love magical- it’s the one time where you get to see a person for who they are.

“Like Peter and Wendy, anytime they’re shown on screen, for those brief moments the audience will escape with them- away from the dark, brutal reality of day-to-day life in a bustling city. Away from an ex who won’t pay child support, and away from flashbacks of a rape. Away from the memories of time in jail for being a kid who had to get by. The lighting much softer, more colorful in this side of their world.

“At the coffee shop we have our Lost Boys- or should I say ‘Girls’ (Nina, Beverley and Annette). It might be Jane’s place of work, but it’s also the one place aside from the dance studio where she can be… normal.

“It’s safe to say that even Toronto plays a role here, since after all, each character is named after its streets. In my own life Toronto is my Neverland. It’s not just one of the biggest cities in Canada, it’s a place of possibilities. So many Lost Boys and Girls like me have come here to start over, finding family through strangers. Here, we don’t have to fit in to be accepted. And neither do Jane and Finch. We can just… be. There’s magic in that.”

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February 22nd 2018 –

Watch Karina Lafayette on Global Television. Her first visit in Montreal in over a year!

Read Karina Lafayette’s latest interview featured in She Does the City, a famous website for women located in the city of Toronto. For the entire interview, click here.

April 2nd 2017 –

Well the year so far has proven quite a journey. Since moving to Toronto last summer, Karina has worked as a script supervisor. She’s also been promoting her latest film, a short called Give Me a Smile that can be watched here. Currently she is promoting the film in media and plans to have it screened at festivals.

It was first introduced in an article for the newspaper The Concordian in early March ( visit this link to read the article online). By March 22nd Karina had the privilege of being interviewed on the legendary Montreal radio station CKUT.

May 25th 2016 –

First post of the year! This is to announce that come early this summer Karina Lafayette will be moving outside of Montreal, as she makes her way across the country. Her plans are to work in Toronto and Europe. With this comes her second feature, a documentary entitled Unscripted: Rebel with a Cause, that’s currently in production. The film will begin in Montreal and continue on in her new city. Featuring interviews with people involved in the film industry, here is a sneak peak at the early trailer. She hopes to release it in festivals starting in 2017.

December 5th 2015 –

What’s new? Aside from a new production team joining Karina Lafayette on the quest to make films, we have a major announcement coming up this month. As well as two new short films, one to be produced before the New Year, and a project announcement for Spring.

Carus Productions is looking to put together a production team. That’s right, dust off your lenses and get your pens ready for script ideas. We are currently looking for two camerawo/men, an assistant director, a sound editor, boom operator, and a photographer. If this fits your profile we’d love to hear from you

View the Join Us page for more information and be sure to send your resume as a link from Dropbox. Deadline to submit is October 4th.

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August 1st 2015 –

August for Carus Productions begins with the release of Nevermore, a short film unscripted, improvised, shot in only one night with five days of editing. Filmed with use of green screen. It features Vincent Price’s narration of the classic short story, ‘The Raven’. Click here to watch now.

Karina Lafayette also performs two acting roles in this one.

Also, with this comes the announcement of two more short films set to be released by Carus Productions this month: the long-awaited The Creation Story: A Day in the Head of an Artist, which experienced a production delay, and an untitled stop-motion.

Here is the release of Karina Lafayette’s first book, The Traveling Mind: A Journey Into my Own Unconscious, set to officially be released on Amazon Kindle July 3rd 2015! Click here to purchase online.

*If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the app.

With this also comes the launch of Kay El Unlimited Graphics, a division of Carus Productions.

Loneliness, isolation, brainwashing.

This is the story of Karina Lafayette’s childhood, told candidly with not one significant moment forgotten. As a child her mother was mainly at work and she would barely see her. When present, young Karina was either ignored or used as her mother’s personal therapist. Well into her teen years it seemed they were more friends than mother and daughter, therefore normal boundaries did not exist. Passionate about cinema since a young age, Karina wrote her first screenplay at age fourteen, using this as both an escape and as a way to channel her gifted creativity.

When her mother’s mental health began to deteriorate and Karina was looking for a way to cope with the isolation, she discovered meditation. Finally this is where she found the parts of her that were locked away due to her mother’s possessiveness. Suddenly Karina would find herself up night after night, dealing her mother’s humiliation and name-calling, coming into her room to harass her as she pleased.

From the moment she first realized her mother was a narcissist to that fateful night in 2014 when the police drove her to her grandmother’s, where Karina was forced to start her life all over again; this is a tale of abuse not uncommon in contemporary society, but that is rarely discussed nonetheless.

Here are some photos from the event One Night with Al Pacino, held at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier June 7th. It was a phenomenal night! The evening was spent discussing Al’s career, in films such as “Scent of a Woman”, “Serpico”, “A Dog Day Afternoon”, and most notably “The Godfather Trilogy”.

The evening concluded with Al reciting a poem by Oscar Wilde. He’s recently adapted Wilde’s play ‘Salome’ into a movie. Details can be found here, and he is now starring in a film entitled “Danny Collins”, about an aging rockstar.

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April Fool’s 2015 –

Karina Lafayette won’t be going to Cannes- for now. It was a prank, ha, ha. Anywho, ‘The Student Diaries’ is still online for another day and you can also follow us on Twitter @CarusProds, and check out the review in The Concordian here. Many cheers everyone! Thanks to all the people who wish it got accepted.

“Karina Lafayette’s short film ‘A Good Man’ has been accepted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. After all the hard work and determination nothing compares to the courage and perseverance it has taken for one of Montreal’s own to make it to a festival so important to the film industry, considering how few Canadians do get recognized on such an international scale. Lafayette wishes to thank everyone who’s supported her over the years as she prepares her passport and dress and heads off to the French Riviera this May 2015.”

Here below you will find the film that got selected along with the (fake) acceptance letter.

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March 31st 2015 –

The documentary ‘The Student Diaries’ is once again available online from April 1st to April 2nd on the official Carus Productions Youtube channel. Click here to watch. Meanwhile, we are pleased to announce that after twisting Karina’s arm for awhile, we are now finally on Twitter @CarusProds.

As well a review on the documentary was featured in The Concordian, one of Concordia University’s newspapers.

Follow the url below or click the photo to read the full article online.

Karina Lafayette (interviewed under her former last name) was interviewed March 22nd for the show ‘Focus Montreal’ on Global Television with reporter Jamie Orchard to discuss her documentary on the 2012 Quebec Student Movement. The film is available on our Youtube Channel.

For anyone who missed the interview broadcast you can watch it by clicking the link below:

RED ALERT! After screening at Dawson College last year, ‘The Student Diaries’ will be streaming on Youtube this March 22nd starting at midnight to March 25th at 11:59pm. A second streaming of the film will be on April 1st (midnight) to April 2nd at 11:59pm, in line with the third anniversary of the 2012 Quebec Strike that shook the province.

The film will be available on the front page of our channel at “anirak90“. It will also be posted on the front page of our website by midnight on the day of.

For the upcoming year Carus Productions has several projects in the works; a stop-motion animation currently in production (click here for more information), along with a short film based on the childhood of Karina Lafayette. As well there is also a medium-length mockumentary still in development, to be filmed possibly toward late spring. Casting announcements TBA.

In the meantime, enjoy our website’s new look, and be sure to visit the Filmography page to view past works produced until now.